Imam Aḥmad said:
“Ismāʿīl narrated to us—Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīrah narrated—on the authority of Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl—from Abū Qatādah and Abū al-Dahmāʾ, who were frequent travelers to the Sacred House. They said:
‘We once passed by a man from the desert people, and that Bedouin told us:
“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ took me by the hand and began teaching me from what Allah, exalted is He, had taught him, saying:
‘Whenever you abandon something out of reverence for Allah, Allah will grant you something better in its place.’”’ (1)

As for the Almighty’s words:
“We certainly tried Solomon, and We placed upon his throne a body; then he turned in repentance” (Ṣād 38:34),
Ibn Jarīr (2), Ibn Abī Ḥātim, and many other commentators relate a large number of reports here from the early generations. Most—or indeed all—of them go back to Israelite sources, and many contain serious flaws. I pointed this out in my work al-Tafsīr (3); here I shall confine myself to a bare recitation of the verse.

What those reports amount to is that Solomon —peace be upon him—was absent from his throne for forty days and then returned. Once back, he ordered the construction of Bayt al-Maqdis and built it with great precision. We have already noted that he renovated it, and that the first to designate it as a mosque was Israel (Jacob), peace be upon him. This is as we mentioned when citing the ḥadith of Abū Dharr, who said:
‘I asked, “O Messenger of Allah, which mosque was established first?”
He replied, “al-Masjid al-Ḥarām.”
I asked, “Then which?”
He said, “The Mosque of Bayt al-Maqdis.”
I asked, “How long was the interval between them?”
He said, “Forty years.”’ (4)

It is well known, however, that more than a thousand years—and certainly more than forty—separated Abraham, who built the Sacred Mosque, from Solomon son of David, peace be upon them both. After completing Bayt al-Maqdis, Solomon asked for the unique sovereignty that would belong to no one after him. Concerning this, Imam Aḥmad, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Mājah, Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn Ḥibbān, and al-Ḥākim all record—through their chains—from ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Fayrūz al-Daylamī, from ʿAbd-Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
‘When Solomon finished building Bayt al-Maqdis, he asked his Lord, exalted is He, for three things, and He granted him two of them; we hope that the third will be granted to us.
He asked for a judgment that would coincide with Allah’s judgment, and He granted it to him.
He asked for a kingdom that no one after him would possess, and He granted it to him.
And he asked that anyone who left his home intending nothing but the prayer in this mosque would emerge from his sins like the day his mother bore him. We hope that Allah has granted us that request as well.’ (5)

As for the judgment that accords with the judgment of Allah Most High, Allah praised him and his father when He said:
“And David…"